A joint round table was held in St. Petersburg The World Entrepreneurship Week and the St. Petersburg International Craft Congress "Promotion of Russian folk arts and crafts abroad", the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade reports. The event highlighted the issues of the activities of Russian companies exporting handicrafts.

The round table was attended by: Deputy Director of the Department of Industry Development of Socially Significant Goods of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, Lilia Nurgatina, founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Global Rus Trade, Anna Nesterova, Chairman of the Board of the Association "Folk Arts and Crafts Russia», Gennady Drozhzhin, eBay Business Development Director, Anastasia Yanovskaya, Managing Partner of the "Fair of Masters", Denis Kochergin, Co-Chairman and Regional Director of ASSOCHAM, Perminder Jeet Kaur(India), Head of the Center for Competence and Analysis of Standards of the OECD RANEPA, Antonina Levashenko, as well as heads of organizations of folk arts and crafts.

The speakers discussed a number of important issues, namely: the current state of exports of folk arts and crafts, the best practices of Russian industries in entering foreign markets, international experience in exporting similar goods, as well as diversification of sales channels and opportunities for cross-border e-commerce.

«Russian producers of folk art crafts already export their products to 27 countries of all regions of the world. According to estimates, the volume of exports of the industry in 2017 increased by 1.5 times. At the same time, the share of exports in the total sales volume is only 3%, and the potential for expanding activities here is huge: domestic manufacturers produce exquisite and unique products of the highest quality and are ready to enter new foreign markets.

Lilia Nurgatina

In the context of the digitalization of the global economy, e-commerce channels, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, are becoming one of the most promising tools for increasing sales within the country and entering foreign markets. In this regard, one of the key places in the discussion was devoted to the experience and prospects of organizing electronic trade in handicrafts as one of the main tools for their promotion.

Anna Nesterova spoke about the creation of the corresponding Association "Promotion of national productions of Global Rus Trade", the main purpose of which is the formation of a b2b platform for cross-border e-commerce, actively promoting measures for the formation of a culture of remote sales of handicrafts.